All posts tagged #skpoli

the regina mom is so very excited! As you regulars are aware, she attended the Women’s Forum des Femmes in Ottawa in October and had a fantastic time. So, she brought the idea home and is happy to invite you to save the date!

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Saskatchewan Women’s Forum 2013

If you are interested in women’s rights, in connecting with individuals and organizations who have been working on women’s issues recently and through the decades, and in spending a weekend learning, having fun, and moving a women’s agenda forward in our province, then:

Please set aside Friday, January 18 (evening) and Saturday, January 19, 2013!

We are a coalition of women and organizations who have come together to plan a Saskatchewan Women’s Forum taking place at the Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon. For too long, we have been having conversations in isolation from each other about the current context that women and women’s organizations find themselves in. So we are creating this opportunity to collectively develop how we can move forward on the issues that we care about.

We are currently finalizing our program, which will be centered on women’s stories and respectful of intergenerational, intercultural and diverse experiences. If you are interested in attending, please respond back to us (at michelle.beveridge@oxfam.ca,306.242.4097)) and we will ensure you receive the program and registration package by mid-December.

In the meantime, please save the date! And get in touch with us if you would like to be part of the planning, to volunteer at the forum in any number of capacities, or have other ideas for us.

Registration is $50/person. (Please let us know if you are in a situation where you would only be able to attend with a reduced rate, or conversely, if you are able and willing to donate money to assist in covering a portion of registration for others.)

As the regina mom‘s readers already know, she endorsed Dr. Ryan Meili in his bid for leadership of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party. The idea-sharing, hard work and comaraderie among the folks on the campaign team has instilled in her a renewed sense of commitment to building a better world. Our creative campaign team came up with this great idea, just in time for holiday gift-giving! the regina mom invites you to be part of this historic time by supporting Ryan’s campaign. Check out the 50/50/7 deal:

50 years ago, the Saskatchewan NDP took the bold step of introducing universal healthcare.

50 years ago, the Saskatoon Community Clinic, where Ryan works, was established to provide that care and defend the single-payer, publicly-funded system.

Today, Ryan’s campaign is building on that legacy of big ideas and shared struggle.

And we need your help.

In honour of the 50th anniversary of Medicare, we’re asking 50 people to make a donation of $50 to help us build this movement. And as a gesture of our gratitude, we’ll send you something important in return — read on for details.

We have been very encouraged by the generous support you’ve shown since Ryan launched his bid for the Sask NDP leadership. Your support has given our campaign huge momentum going into the holiday season.

But you know that campaigns cost money, and the bills don’t stop just because the holiday season is approaching. So instead of just asking for another donation, we wanted to offer something meaningful back to you.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Medicare, for the next week we’ll send a signed copy of Ryan’s book, A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy, to everyone who donates $50 or more in response to this appeal.

If you’re able to give $100, $150 or $500, you’ll be helping us cover the cost of sending books to people around the province and beyond, while still ensuring that we have the resources we need to run a winning campaign.

To meet upcoming campaign expenses, we need to reach at least 50 donors in the next 7 days. We hope you’ll sign on so we can send you Ryan’s book.

A Healthy Society proposes a new approach to politics, one that can help us put progressive ideas front-and-centre in addressing our shared challenges.

As Former Premier Lorne Calvert has said, “For those who seek the renewal of politics and public health in Canada, Dr. Meili has a vision for both. This work makes an important contribution to progressive dialogue in Canada.”

Lots of people have contacted us to say they want to learn more about Ryan’s vision for a healthy society. His book is the perfect resource for inspiring us all to work together to make it possible.

Help us celebrate the past 50 years, and shape the next 50 years, of progressive innovations in this province.

Please take a moment to make a donationtoday, either online through our secure server or by calling (306) 361-5755, so we can send you a copy of Ryan’s book.
With hope and gratitude,

Nicole, Jason, Rachel, Gavin, Erica, Dave, and the rest of the Meili campaign team

p.s. Remember: we need to reach at least 50 donors in the next week — please take a moment right now to respond, and then please pass the message on to your networks.

the regina mom posted this on Ryan Meili’s ideas page, in response to a call for ideas about building gender equity in SK. Ryan is the candidate trm is supporting in the SK NDP Leadership race. She is overwhelmed by and grateful for the positive support the idea is receiving.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the Saskatchewan women’s movement was a force to be reckoned with. Feminist organizations within the province had built a solid base from which to act and continue to build.

The Saskatchewan Women’s Agenda* was the result of an intense, two-year, participatory process that brought more than 50 Saskatchewan women’s organizations together to determine what women needed to live full and equitable lives in this province. The Agenda addressed a broad range of issues, established goals and directed our work and the work we hoped to see a new government take on.

But then came the feminist backlash. As a result, debt reduction gave way to creating a better world for women. Most feminist organizations faced slashed budgets from federal and provincial sources. Some groups folded. Others managed to hold onto shoestring funding and find other sources and stay alive.

Feminists in Saskatchewan have not come together in a real and meaningful way since the mid 1990’s. Key organizers within the women’s movement have left the province or worse, passed on. Generational change is afoot in the organizations that managed to stay afloat and a key piece of our Saskatchewan women’s history, the Saskatchewan Women’s Agenda, is difficult to find, let alone study and pass on.

In mid-October, Niki Ashton, Member of Parliament for Churchill and Opposition Critic for Women, hosted the Women’s Forum des Femmes which brought together a diverse community of women from across the country. Ms Ashton created a “space for women to share experiences, ideas, and shape collective plans for re-igniting the women’s movement in Canada.” Women who hadn’t connected since the 90’s were able to share their stories, many heart-breaking and anger-making, to reconnect with sisters in the struggle, to re-invigorate each other and younger feminists taking leadership in the movement and yes, to re-ignite the Canadian women’s movement grounded in wisdom, a passion for change and a commitment to make a better world.

This is what the Saskatchewan women’s movement needs. Ms Ashton’s model can be easily adapted to the provincial level. The new Leader of the Saskatchewan NDP can make it happen. He can make it happen because he knows we are better together.

With this post, the regina mom publicly declares her support for Dr. Ryan Meili in his bid for Leader of the New Democratic Party in Saskatchewan. Learning about his community-based perspective, commitment to progressive ideals and dedication to building a better world pretty much cinched the deal.

Dr. Meili truly cares about people. His practice sees him working as a family physician at the West Side Community Clinic in Saskatoon or spelling off doctors in rural Saskatchewan communities or working with University of Saskatchewan medical students in the Making the Links Training for Health Renewal program at the Massinga Training Centre in Massinga, Mozambique, communities in northern Saskatchewan and in the heart of Saskatoon at SWITCH, the Student Wellness Initiative Toward Community Health, a student-run, interdisciplinary, inner-city clinic.

Healthy Society is an eloquent cry from the heart and a rational appeal to the mind. With meticulous research, dramatic personal histories and precise analysis Dr. Meili shows why our wealthy society is far from a healthy one. He illustrates how social status affects physical well-being and suggests steps necessary to create a culture that’s democratic not only in the electoral sense but also in its provision for the health of its members. — Gabor Maté M.D., Author, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

Needless to say, A Healthy Society is now on trm‘s reading list. Oh yes, dear Reader, you know the regina mom has a soft spot for politics and also for writers. Her experience marketing this hot place taught her that spending time visiting libraries and bookstores, town halls and community centres throughout the province and the country, sharing a book to which you’ve given your creative energies, takes a lot of courage and confidence, flexibility and commitment. the regina mom wants those characteristics in the Leader of the NDP, the party that most closely represents her politics.

For a number of reasons, the regina mom has had an almost 20-year love/hate relationship with the Saskatchewan NDP. Today, it seems, she is making her way to the love side. Check it out!

Donate your Facebook cover image to Ryan’s campaign for the day or the whole campaign!

Dr. Meili has scheduled an announcement regarding the Sask NDP’s Leadership race for 12 noon today. It looks like he’s in! He surprised a lot of folks last time around by taking 45% of the final vote. Here’s hoping he takes it this time, because it’s true, we are BETTER TOGETHER!